of japan, korea, vietnam, thailand, singapore, indonesia, burma; all of which represent the future of the united states in terms of trade, security and cultural growth in the coming decades. with respect to burma, there was a great moment for me to be able to sit down and see aung san suu kyi recognized by the congress a month or so ago, coming to this country as a member, an elected member of their parliament. we began the change in that relationship from our office, directly from our office based on work that i had begun and become interested in over a period of six years before i was elected to the senate. we, i'm very proud to say, laid the groundwork for the historic visit in 2009 from inside our office. often i would say against the will and against the advice of our own state department. we used validators. we talked to people we knew in the region. i became the only american leader ever to meet with general shui, leader of the military junta, to express my belief that we could work forward to have a different relationship. i met with aung san suu kyi, and i hope that those